1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to using a search index in a music file.
2. Background Information
With the advent of widespread personal computer use and internet accessibility, EMD (Electronic Music Download) is becoming very popular. A user can retrieve their favorite music immediately over the internet. Downloading of music over the internet is easier and quicker to obtain than conventional media such as compact disc or a cassette tape. The downloaded music can not only be stored and played on a personal computer, but it can also be downloaded onto a personal music playback system, such as Sony's Memory Stick Walkman.
A problem that arises with EDM is how to quickly find the music a user wants to play. An EMD library on a remote host is too large to immediately find the specific music a user wishes to play. Also, after downloading the music to a user's personal computer, again finding the specific music that a user wants to listen to is a problem. Once a user has built up a large library of downloaded music files, the more difficult is to find the specific music file a user wishes to listen to.
One way to alleviate the problem of finding a specific music file is to search by a melody as illustrated by the filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/429,260, filed on Oct. 29, 1999. The music, however, is stored in one file and the index is stored in another file. Therefore, a problem arises after the music file is downloaded. Since the index file remains on the remote database, a user cannot use the search function in the client computer after the music file is downloaded. Therefore, a problem exists with portability of music files for searching capabilities.